Camosun College says it’s planning across-the-board layoffs, as it deals with a drop in tuition revenue as a result of the federal government’s decision to sharply reduce new visas for international students.
Spokesperson Rodney Porter said the college was disappointed by “sudden and dramatic” changes to the international student program introduced by the federal government this year without consultation, which he said “have damaged Canada as a brand.”
Porter said Camosun has 400 fewer international students than it budgeted for in 2025/26 and numbers are expected to decline further.
The result is a projected deficit of at least $5 million, prompting the decision to implement layoffs and eliminate existing vacant positions, Porter said.
“Layoffs are difficult and always a last resort,” he said. “Additional details of the labour-adjustment strategies will be shared with employees as the process unfolds.”
Porter said the college is closely monitoring enrolment numbers and will continue to look for solutions and advocate for resources.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced in January that new visas for international students would be cut by more than a third in 2024, in part to curb the pressure that temporary residents are putting on the nation’s housing supply.
Miller said there will be a two-year cap on numbers that will also give the federal and provincial government time to deal with problems in the student-visa system — including facilities that charge high tuition but deliver poor education.
A total of 364,000 student visas will be issued this year in Canada, down 35 per cent from the 560,000 issued in 2023.
Camosun College Faculty Association president Lynelle Yutani, who represents 600 members, said the association learned Wednesday that a “major restructuring” is planned that involves bringing academic areas together to reduce administrative costs.
“They have indicated that once reorganization has commenced, or it becomes clear what that looks like, then that will lead to them being able to identify subsequent layoffs.”
Yutani said that other institutions facing a similar crunch, including Vancouver’s Langara College, have also been combining administrative sections from different areas of study.
Camosun faculty has yet not been consulted about the restructuring, she said.
She said the association would have preferred more detail in the initial announcement about what the cuts will be and how they will be applied, which might have meant less “unnecessary panic” among employees.
As it stands, information is “trickling” out to those who could be affected, she said.
Yutani said Camosun management has been aware of concerns about international-student numbers and revenue loss since early in the current semester. “We’ve had a number of vague and nebulous warnings about cuts.”
All post-secondary institutions in B.C. are being affected by the federal policy on international students, said Erynne Grant, labour-relations officer for CUPE Local 2081, which has 630 members at Camosun in such job areas as food services and library services.
Grant said the current funding model has forced colleges and universities to overly rely on international student tuition to support core operations.
“Post-secondary institutions as a whole have been forced, in order to maintain operations over the past 25 years, to find other revenue sources where government funding has been reduced.”
Something has to change, she said. “Careening from emergency budget to emergency budget is unsustainable,” Grant said. “We need government, at all levels, to give greater consideration to the impact our sector has on our communities.”
Camosun also had to deal with drops in the number of international students in 2020 and 2021 related to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Employees needing support because of the developing situation were advised by Camosun management to contact Homewood Health, which provides the college with an employee- and family-assistance program.
“Anxiety is understandable and we know people have questions,” management said in an email to staff.
